Cakie! - Topper Revisted

**Sak's been bugging me about posting his project for a while, and I being lazy, told him the only way it was going on the blog was if he wrote it. So here you go, folks, Sak's first (and probably last, judging by the amount of complaining I heard) post!**

Hello, this is Sak. Since the table numbers are making penga run about with out her head attached, I have decided to write about our cake topper.

As we have mentioned earlier, our cake will have power poles going up the side with a streetlamp lighting up the happy couple...And what could go better with the model train power poles, then some model train streetlights? all I need to do is switch out the wall plug with some batteries and we're good to go, right?

Easier said than done apparently. While they look nice, they were notoriously inefficient...and needed a whole 8-pack of AAs to light up which looked kind of silly. So I had to do a few things to salvage improve the design.

First I swapped out the old bulb with three LED bulbs which were brighter and took less power.

Everyone loves LEDs.

Unfortunately you normally cannot hook up LEDs directly to the batteries, since they need additional electronics (a constant current source for those of you who care) to function properly. Since I had to design the electronics myself (and because this was more fun than making escort cards), I decided to add a boost converter, so it only needs 2 batteries. (and made sure that the whole thing was 100% lead free)
The AA batteries are the biggest components of the project!
And then I fit the whole thing inside a mint tin.

Curiously shocking mints

Finally, I took the topper, poles, some thread and cardboard, and put together the mock up to show Penga.

Closeup of the poles.

All lit up!

Did you have a "personal touch" added to your cake?

Shrink-Rayed & Petrified!

Sak popped in the movie Fanboys, and went to town with the invitation cutting. Since we only have one paper cutter, and the movie had rendered the computer unusable for the next hour or so, I brought out the little wooden cake-topper people I had bought from Michaels a while back.

I started by sketching on them with pencil.

At first they had faces that looked like this:

But Sak said it looked too lecherous and creepy, so I replaced them with their current face, which is a little more kawaii (cute).

I only had white, red and black acrylic pants on me, so I painted as much as I could. For small areas and outlines, I used a black sharpie. The other colors: green, yellow, etc., were also done with sharpies. Lastly, I hot glued a little lace skirt to wooden-Penga. I'll still need to give them a shiny clear-coating, and a way to attach to the cake, perhaps a la Miss Pretzel.



Wooden-Penga is holding a paopu fruit from the game Kingdom Hearts. According to the game, two people who share a paopu fruit will have their destinies twined together, no matter what. Sweet, no? Wooden-Sak is holding a blue feather, which is the item you use to propose with in the Harvest Moon games.


Do you think Tamama and Keroro will feel a little put out if I don't use them though?
These DIY figurines are definitely fun, but I don't know if I can commit, there are still so many other things I could use for a topper. At this rate, I'll end up like my friend L., who displayed four different toppers because she couldn't decided which she liked best. And while there's nothing wrong with that, our cake is a little small and could easily topple with too many widgets on top!

Cakie! - The Lights Come On

In a glorious end to a week of fails, these cuties came in the mail last night:

My cake power poles! A huge shout-out and thank you to Ashinwi, who gave me the link to the pole-selling shop!

Now, since wood poles are for sissies, I'm going to have to paint them silver for some tubular steel pole action.

I'm thinking silver edible paint? That way I won't have to worry about poisoning anyone.

(source)

Should I should paint them myself, or have our baker (whenever we find one) do it for us? Do I hold onto them, or give them to the baker six months out? What if they lose them? (I guess I guess the safest bet is just to ask the baker.)

The next question is, what to use for cables?

Wire, I think, would be too unwieldy. I can just see a piece coming undone and springing a big hole right into the side of the cake. *shudder*

I do have jewelry wire, which is a little less rigid, that we could use -

Or maybe some embroidery thread (though I'd have to get some in black)?

In any case, I'm pretty excited about this cake now. Sak and I will have to visit a hobby shop and get a cute little LED lamp for the top.

..And only somewhat unrelated, but undeniably adorable:

(source)

Little streetlight place card holders! *swoons* These would be so neat for a vintage/romantic Audrey Hepburn-type wedding. Or it would be neat for those that name their tables after cities/districts, since each card looks like a little street sign. I love it, but unfortunately it doesn't mesh too well with my decidedly Asian theme-vibe. Oh well, just thought I'd share anyway! :)

Why is everything in miniature always so cute? Does silver paint make your tongue sparkle? What do the power poles look like where you live? (The construction tends to differ by area.)

Cakie! - Hats

I've talked a little bit about overall cake designs, but today let's just concentrate on the fun part - the topper.

Pretty much anything you can think of can be made into a cake topper. Here's my shortlist:

-Custom wooden people
I picked these little guys up at Michael's for about a dollar or so. It would be simple enough to paint them into a Sak and Peng, and would end up looking maybe something like this:

(click image for source)

-Anime figurines
Oh, there's ton of potential here. Link and Zelda, Shinji and Asuka/Rei/Misato/Kaoru, Lelouch and CC..Somehow I don't think we really identify with the more iconic "couples". Maybe more with Otani and Risa, or Nodame and Chiaki. Maybe we'll go back to Tamama and Keroro, even.
How would this look on a cake? I bought this one from Fanime for $5 a few years ago.

-Flowers
Can't go wrong here, a pretty bunch of flowers on top of a cake is gorgeous, though not high up the personality scale.

(Click image for source)

-Little IC people

(click image for source)

I had this weird thought of using big fatty IC chips and making them look like little people-bugs by bending the pins into feet and hands (Like the "bugs" above, only standing up like "people"). Draw a face on with paint, and voila? Unfortunately, I doubt I could find chips big enough, and we might run into the "contains lead" problem again.

-Hawaiian Salt & Pepper Shakers

(click image for source)

This seems to be the standard cake topper for the Hawaiian bride. It's so cute! But not really indicative of Sak and I. Neither of us are even close to being that tan. *sigh*.

What kind of hat does your cake get to wear?